The party, with white supremacist roots, rose from roughly 13 percent in the previous election, the poll by public service broadcaster SVT suggested, depriving either of the mainstream blocs of a parliamentary majority.

SD chairman Ulf Richard Jomshof said: "We want to be a part of a government."

A protracted battle to form a working coalition now looks certain.

A senior German official described Sweden's election as a "turning point" for Europe.

Michael Roth, a deputy foreign minister, was quoted as telling Monday's edition of German daily Die Welt saying Sweden had seen an emotional discussion about migration and said: "the gap between facts and perceived reality is getting ever bigger."

"Nationalist populism is still advancing, and it will complicate forming a government."

The Sweden Democrats, who want the country to leave the European Union and put a freeze on immigration, could play a decisive role in what looks set to be complex and drawn out negotiations.

Other European countries have seen support rise for anti-immigration parties amid growing anxiety over national identity and the effects of globalisation and fears over immigration following armed conflict in the Middle East and North Africa.

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Italy this year installed a new coalition government run by the anti-establishment Five Star and the right-wing League.

Meanwhile last year the far-right Alternative for Germany won 12.6 per cent of the vote, and The Danish People's Party won 21 per cent in 2015.

Acrimony between the two main political blocs has defined Swedish politics for decades, and the rise of the Sweden Democrats - long a pariah grouping in parliament - has hugely complicated the political landscape.

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